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She started to ask if a body that was tingling all over with desire counted, but didn’t. “Nothing I haven’t felt before.”
“Good,” he said. “You look okay to me.”
“Thanks,” she said without enthusiasm. “So you didn’t try to kill yourself?”
“Hell no! I’ve been jumping off that cliff since I was a kid—but don’t tell Mom that or she’ll start a petition to get the place closed down, or dynamited.” He paused. “So what are you doing up here?”
“Painting,” she said.
He looked around, but saw nothing. Jecca got up, went into the bushes, returned with her watercolors, and spread them out on a rock.
“These are good,” he said. “I’m no art critic, but . . .” He shrugged.
“You know what you like?”
“Yeah.” He gave a little grin at the cliché, then sat down and leaned back against the rock.
Jecca left her paintings in the sun to dry and sat beside him, but with three feet between them. “Are you better now?”
“Yev> m">Rs,” he said. “The whole thing with Laura was a shock as much as anything. Maybe you’re too young to say this to, but—”
“I’m nineteen.”
“Old enough to hear, I guess. I’ve never been to bed with any woman except Laura.”
“Really,” she said, astounded.
“Dumb, huh?”
“Actually, it’s kind of nice,” she said. “Faithfulness seems to be a forgotten virtue in our country.”
“I’m sure Kim told you that I fell in love with Laura when I was in the eighth grade. We were together through high school, college, and since I’ve been in med school.”
“Sounds like a long-term marriage. Maybe she wanted someone she didn’t know every little thing in the world about.”
He looked at her. “You’re smart, aren’t you?”
She didn’t answer, just smiled in a way that she hoped was both seductive and mysterious.
Reede didn’t seem to notice. “Laura said something like that. She said that guy didn’t know what she liked to eat, to wear, or what she was going to say before she said it.”
“If she’s that predictable maybe she’s a bit of a dullard.” She didn’t know how he’d take what she’d said, but some reality needed to be injected into the situation.
“You’ve been talking to my sister. She says Laura is as dull as tarnished silver—without the silver underneath.”
“That sounds like Kim.” Jecca hesitated. “So what do you plan to do now?”
“I think I’ll make my family happy and stop moping. Then I think I’ll make up for lost time.”
“Women?” she asked and couldn’t help thinking, Me first!
“One or two maybe. I’m certainly not going to waste another second being miserable.”
“Good,” she said. “Maybe you and I could . . . uh, do something.”
Reede stood up and stretched. “Sorry, kid, but I need to hit the books. I think I’ll go back to school and see what’s going on there. I’ve wasted weeks being—” He waved his hand. “That’s over now.”
Jecca stood up and tried to think of something clever to say to make him stay, but nothing came to mind.
